The present disclosure relates generally to hinge and slide devices, and more particularly, to such a device for vehicle doors.
Sliding door structures are generally implemented on vehicles to reduce the door swing distance from the vehicle body; to allow for better ingress and egress into or from a vehicle; and to provide more efficient use of vehicle space. This type of design may be particularly helpful when a user is parking a vehicle in a confined area where there is little available room for door swing.
In the sliding door structure, guide rails are generally included at the roof rail/cant rail and rocker/sill as well as adjacent to a vehicle body class A surface. It is to be understood that the class A surface of a vehicle is the exterior area of the vehicle that is visible. The guide rail on the class A surface is generally configured as a linear track just below the side window. In addition, such vehicles generally also implement a curved guide track on the vehicle body at the sill/rocker and/or side rail/cant rail to guide the sliding door into the closed position against the vehicle body. To open a traditional sliding door, the sliding door is projected in a vehicle exterior direction along the curved portion of the guide rail, and then the sliding door is translated along the linear portion to a fully opened position. To close the sliding door, the sliding door is moved to the curved portion from the linear portion of the guide rail until the sliding door is pulled inward toward the vehicle.
However, a traditional sliding door movement does coincide with the curved shape of the guide rail once it transitions from the linear portion to the curved portion resulting in a two step operation for opening and closing the sliding door, thereby resulting in disrupted motion as the vehicle door is opened and closed. Moreover, it is to be understood that implementation of a sliding door on sedan vehicles, sports coupes, trucks, etc. may in some instances provide additional challenges due to their specific and varied body architectures. As such, sliding door systems are traditionally implemented on larger vehicles such as vans/minivans, which have ample area to mount sliding systems on the vehicle body itself.